Push Mob: Conditions and Diseases

Showing posts with label Conditions and Diseases. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Treat Anger With Exercise

Control anger with daily exercise.

Healthcare providers have recommended exercise as a way to boost mood for many years. Despite exercise's reputation as a mood booster, there have previously been no studies to indicate exercise could treat negative feelings other than depression. A new study, released at the American College of Sports Medicine's 57th Annual Meeting, reported that exercise may also reduce or even prevent anger. This is exciting news, as managing anger is a problem we all face, whether with family, coworkers, or strangers.

Researchers studied the effect of viewing anger-inducing scenes in college-age men. Study participants watched the scenes both before and after cycling at 65 percent of their maximum oxygen uptake. Researchers found that viewing the scenes after cycling prevented the study participants from feeling angry. Researchers determined anger response by measuring brain activity and self-reported feels of anger by study participants.

Nathaniel Thom, Ph.D., stress physiologist and lead investigator on the study, equated the finding to taking a daily aspirin to prevent a heart attack. He would like to see additional studies to determine the effects of a long-term exercise program on anger as well as the effect of exercise on anger using other types of anger-induction.

While occasional feelings of anger are normal, chronic anger has a negative effect on health. Chronic anger can increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes. In addition to improving your health, managing and controlling anger can improve your relationship with others. This study indicates that regular exercise may be one way to manage anger and reduce angry responses.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Working Overtime Increases Heart Risk

People who regularly put in overtime and work 10 or 11-hour days increase their heart disease risk by nearly two-thirds, research suggests.

The findings come from a study of 6,000 British civil servants, published online in the European Heart Journal.

After accounting for known heart risk factors such as smoking, doctors found those who worked three to four hours of overtime a day ran a 60% higher risk.

Experts said the findings highlighted the importance of work-life balance.

Overall, there were 369 cases where people suffered heart disease that caused death, had a heart attack or developed angina.

And the number of hours spent working overtime appeared to be strongly linked in many cases.

The researchers said there could be a number of explanations for this.

People who spend more time at work have less time to exercise, relax and unwind.

Work/life balance plays a vital role in well-being

Dr John Challenor, from the Society of Occupational Medicine

They may also be more stressed, anxious, or have depression.

A career-minded person will also tend to be a "Type A" personality who is highly driven, aggressive or irritable, they say.

"Employees who work overtime may also be likely to work while ill - that is, be reluctant to be absent from work despite illness," they add.

Lead researcher Mianna Virtanen, an epidemiologist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki and University College London, said: "More research is needed before we can be confident that overtime work would cause coronary heart disease."

Cathy Ross, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the research, said: "This study raises further questions about how our working lives can influence our risk of heart disease.

"Although the researchers showed a link between working more than three hours overtime every day and heart problems, the reasons for the increased risk weren't clear.

"Until researchers understand how our working lives can affect the risk to our heart health, there are simple ways to look after your heart health at work, like taking a brisk walk at lunch, taking the stairs instead of the lift, or by swapping that biscuit for a piece of fruit."

Dr John Challenor, from the Society of Occupational Medicine, said: "In many ways it confirms what we as occupational health doctors already know - that work/life balance plays a vital role in well-being.

"Employers and patients need to be aware of all of the risk factors for coronary heart disease and should consider overtime as one factor that may lead to a number of medical conditions."

[via BBC]

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Thin Girls May Face Higher Breast Cancer Risk as Adults

Image via Wikipedia

Women who were thin as young girls are at increased risk for breast cancer as they age compared to women who were larger in girlhood, a new study finds.

Researchers examined the link between childhood body size and tumor characteristics in over 2,800 Swedish breast cancer patients and a control group of more than 3,100 women without breast cancer.

"Our main finding was that a large body type at age seven years was associated with a decreased risk of postmenopausal breast cancer," said study author Jingmei Li in a press release.

Although a large body type in girls is strongly associated with other known risk factors for breast cancer, such as early menstruation, a high adult BMI and breast density, Li said, a large body type at age seven "remained a significant protective factor after adjustment for these other issues."

"It appears counterintuitive that a large body size during childhood can reduce breast cancer risk, because a large birth weight and a high adult BMI have been shown to otherwise elevate breast cancer risk. There remain unanswered questions on mechanisms driving this protective effect," Li said.

The findings may offer a new way to help determine a woman's breast cancer risk.

"Given the strength of the associations, and the ease of retrieval of information on childhood shape from old photographs, childhood body size is potentially useful for building breast cancer risk or prognosis models," Li and colleagues concluded.

The study appears April 15 in the journal Breast Cancer Research.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Harry's Spring Run-Off 2010 Results

The Push Mob was definitely representing at this years Harry Rosen Spring Run-Off which was held at beautiful High Park. It was for Prostate cancer, the most common type of cancer in men and the second most deadly. There were over 5,000 people that participated today at High Park and the course was definitely challenging. The hills on the course were intense to say the least. We all finished, and pumped to better our times for the next run. Here are the official results from the Push Mob members that participated in that challenging race.

41:36.0 GUERRERO, TRISTAN

47:54.0 HAMBRE, SAM

53:52.2 PAIVA, DEVIN

54:01.3 TANG, JULIUS

26:23.7 TAM, WILLIAM

I hope to see more of you out for the next event!!!